The present invention relates to swimming pool cleaners and is concerned primarily with a cleaner which is mounted in a fitting in an opening in the pool floor and which is provided with a mechanism for lifting a jet block above the pool floor to expose an outlet opening therein, rotating the block, and at the same time ejecting water from the opening under pressure as a jet, all of which operations are performed by water under pressure coming from a suitable source of supply.
At the present time, the installation of home swimming pools is becoming more and more widespread. A significant amount of time and effort is required to clean such pools. Great difficulty has been experienced in attempting to provide automatic means for cleaning the bottom walls of such pools. In recent years, the use of plastic swimming pools has become more and more widespread. Plastic swimming pools also have experienced problems in cleaning the walls thereof. The present invention is concerned primarily with the provision of a swimming pool cleaner which may be mounted in a fitting secured in an opening formed in the pool and which provides a mechanism for raising a jet block from a position in which it is substantially flush with the floor; i.e., it is substantially positioned within its fitting, to one in which it delivers a jet of water substantially parallel to the adjacent surfaces of the pool and rotates the block with the power to do so derived from the pressure of water from an appropriate source of supply.
There are examples in the prior art of pop-up sprinklers for grass lawns in which a nozzle is rotated, or oscillated, between fixed limits by water under pressure from a suitable source and of using such lawn sprinklers to clean swimming pools. Attempts to use lawn sprinklers as pool cleaners has not worked out satisfactorily. The reasons are because many lawn sprinklers are provided with complex mechanisms to oscillate the sprinkler head over various arcs, or to produce multiple patterns of areas to be watered which is neither appropriate nor necessary in a pool cleaner. The means for mounting sprinkler heads in the ground where they are readily available for adjustment, service, or repair are not appropriate for a pool cleaner mounted in a wall or a floor of a swimming pool several feet below the surface of the pool. The ease of mounting of the pool cleaner so that it can be easily installed, and removed for service, repaired, or replacement is an important attribute of a swimming pool cleaner.